Traditional qualitative research has paved the way for decades, collecting in-depth insights, but today, AI-powered qual-at-scale is where the conversation starts. Conducting interviews, transcribing conversations, analyzing responses, and building reports across multiple markets can take weeks, even months. That’s where Qual-at-Scale comes in as a new approach that uses AI tools for qualitative research to automate and accelerate every stage of insight generation.

Merren’s AI-powered qualitative research tool can help marketers, CX professionals and researchers go from research setup to actionable insights in hours instead of weeks. Think of it as a guided tour through the five key stages: research setup, key information areas, question development, AI-interviewer setup, and deploy & launch. 

What is Merren’s AI Interviewer? 

Merren’s AI-interviewer is a hybrid way of conducting qual and quant research across any industries and location. This includes creating an AI-powered discussion guide that takes the user through the detailed process of creating a research objective to collect data. The data is collected by this AI-interviewer.
Using AI-powered tools is not the absence of human intervention. It is a collaborative function with a human researcher and an AI tool that can enable people to collect research data at scale minus the fatigue. 

Qualitative Research with Merren: Stepwise Guide to a Personalized AI Interviewer

Step 1: Start your qual-at-scale research with an objective

Sign up with your enterprise account and head to the Merren dashboard. All the AI-powered tools will be available for a well-rounded research strategy. 

In Merren, the foundation of any successful market research project begins with the “What’s your research objective?” screen. Researchers define their goal whether it’s understanding consumer behavior, testing new product concepts, or identifying unmet needs.

For example, get prompts such as the following sample : “Understand how young professionals (25-35) in urban areas perceive and use grocery delivery services, focusing on their decision-making process, pain points, and unmet needs.“

You can upload files or URLs for context (competitor studies or buyer personas). The AI then suggests key exploration areas to cover all angles of research. This AI-assisted brainstorming prevents oversight of critical angles, like demographic nuances or emerging trends.

Why it matters: It lays the foundation for hybrid qual and quant research by aligning research objectives directly with business goals. Set a strong hypothesis-driven framework right from the start. Specificity prevents wasted effort. With AI, vague objectives turn into structured, hypothesis-driven research pathways instantly.

Step 2: Focus on topics and key information areas

The next transition is to review your key information areas on the dashboard. This screen auto-generates a list of thematic buckets based on your input such as:

• Shopping Behavior & Preferences
• Decision Factors
• Pain Points & Challenges
• Unmet Needs

Each thematic segment includes a sub-description (e.g., under Decision Factors: “Price sensitivity, convenience factors, selection criteria, competitive comparison”). Regenerate KIAs to add, edit or reorder areas.

Step 3: Question development with AI-assisted discussion guide

Merren generates a well-crafted discussion guide with open-ended questions tied directly to your KIAs. You have the full control to edit, regenerate, or add probes.

This is where the AI interviewer shines. We replace rigid scripts with dynamic discussion guides that can adapt in real time, probing deeper into participant responses. The result? A dynamic script that AI interviewers can adapt in real-time, yielding nuanced responses that traditional moderators might miss due to fatigue or bias.

Step 4: Customize your AI-powered interviewer

This multi-tabbed stage is where you can humanize your AI interviewer for authentic interactions. Let’s break it down by tab:

i) Persona: The “Choose Interviewer Persona” screen offers a few options. Select a person that will best suit your research goal: 

• Neutral professional (objective, clear, professional tone), 
• Friendly conversationalist (warm, approachable, engaging),
• Industry expert (knowledgeable, analytical, insightful), 
• Empathetic listener (understanding, patient, supportive), 
• Direct investigator (straightforward, efficient, to-the-point). 

For sensitive topics especially in the health and wellness industry, an empathetic persona encourages people to open up in the conversation; for technical discussions, an expert tone adds credibility. This step ensures cultural and contextual fit, enhancing response quality.

ii) Voice: In “Voice Settings,” you adjust speaking speed (slow to fast, with a slider defaulting to 1x) and tone (e.g., Professional). A “Test Voice” button lets you preview audio samples.

Voice modulation is often overlooked in research, but it impacts participant comfort in voice-based interviews. Merren’s controls prevent robotic monotony so that interactions feel natural and inclusive for diverse audiences.

iii) Pronunciation: The “Pronunciation Dictionary” allows adding custom entries for names, brands, or regional terms

Pronunciation can matter for branded or localized terms. This feature avoids alienating participants, a common pitfall in global research.

iv) Language: “Select Languages” lists options for English (US/UK), Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, and Hindi. You can choose multiple for multilingual support.

 Merren enables seamless switching, allowing participants to select their preferred language and ensuring insights aren’t lost in translation.

v) Opening message: Craft introductions that set expectations and build rapport. “Configure Opening Message” provides templates (formal, casual, brief) or custom options, with tips like using a warm tone and mentioning duration.

 A strong opener sets expectations and encourages participation. Merren’s templates incorporate best practices, such as reminding users there’s no right or wrong answer, to minimize drop-offs.

This transforms a generic AI into a tailored moderator to replicate the nuance of human-led interviews while scaling effortlessly.

Step 5: Launch campaign and collect insights

Deployment is where Qual-at-Scale proves its value. With Merren, researchers can:

• Share a unique interview URL for asynchronous participation.
• Deploy bots directly into Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet for live interviews.
• Access a centralized AI-powered analysis dashboard that synthesizes transcripts, themes, and sentiment in real time.

This means research teams no longer wait weeks for coding, clustering, and reporting. Instead, insights are generated at the speed of decision-making.

Post-interview, the analysis dashboard aggregates transcripts, themes, and sentiment, using AI to synthesize actionable reports. As a researcher, this end-to-end automation means faster time-to-insights, from setup to synthesis in hours, not weeks

Why is Qual-at-Scale the Future of Research?

Qualitative research at scale has always been rich in insights but slow to scale. By combining AI market research tools, AI interviewers, and intelligent automation, Merren’s Qual-at-Scale makes it possible to:

•  Conduct 100+ in-depth interviews simultaneously.
•  Analyze responses across geographies and languages without bias.
•  Deliver insights that are both nuanced and fast.

This approach doesn’t just replicate traditional methods—it redefines them. With Qual-at-Scale, researchers finally have a way to combine depth with speed, human nuance with AI precision, and small-scale insights with global-scale execution.